Category: Everyone Has a Story to Tell

Danforth CTI graduate Chantelle Johnson is a young woman with both style and substance. Motivated from a young age to work hard, overcome barriers, and give back to her community, Johnson’s dedication paid off earlier this year when she was named the inaugural recipient of the DECA (Danforth East Community Association) Young Leaders Scholarship. Money […]

When Claire McConnell meets someone she thinks she’s going to become close with, she points them to the blogs she published four years ago detailing her family’s journey. “I can’t go through it all,” said Claire. “But you need to know this, it’s such an integral part of who we are now, you can’t know […]

Spend a few hours with Michael Hume on his Beach Hill front porch on a warm spring day, and it’s a wonder the places the conversation will travel to – early memories of Toronto’s other Little Italy at St. Clair and Lansdowne, cities like Cape Breton, Belleville, Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, Vernon, Buenos Aires, Tangier. And […]

The Beach lost one of its brightest lights earlier this month, with the sudden passing of 68-year-old Marilyn Ullrich, a 30-year community member who touched the lives of many. “Ward 32 has lost a gem,” wrote councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon in a tribute to Marilyn which opened her regular newsletter. “Marilyn was a happy-go-lucky lady who […]

One Sunday in the fall of 2014, born-and-raised Beachers Matt and Christine Kavanagh invited their neighbours over for a dinner party. At their house on a quiet street just southeast of Gerrard and Victoria Park, Matt made martinis, smoked brisket and pulled pork, and the neighbours – some of whom had lived on the street […]

In May of 1960, Toronto Daily Star columnist Lotta Dempsey wrote a series of columns in the paper’s ‘Women’ section lamenting what felt like an inevitable third world war, questioning Canada’s role in the global nuclear arms race, and championing the role women could play in its protest. “I have never met a woman anywhere […]

Take a peek through Susana Molinolo’s notebook and you’ll see a variety of inks, textures, pictures – pieces of paper and cue cards taped throughout. Subway and streetcar transfers act as place cards for inspiration, a reminder of where the writer was when she had the adjacent idea, vessels to take her back. The collecting […]

It’s the kind of story that calls to mind the word ‘miracle’. An 83-year-old woman suffers a life-threatening tear of her aorta, and is told she can’t be operated on because of her age. Without the necessary emergency surgery, she should die within 24 hours. But instead, with the help of hospital staff, her body […]

The sale of 250 Glen Manor West draws the curtain on a nearly 50-year run the Hymases experienced looking out at their Beach neighbourhood from their front window – and highlights a wealth of firsthand knowledge of what the area was like then until now. “We were living on Kenilworth at the time,” says Ken […]